I have been trying to download the software OpenTaxSolver to utilize to do my taxes and WOW!!!!! Is this difficult?!?!? It's no wonder 99.9% of people would never use this software as it is just so difficult to even get and use.
I've downloaded to /tmp file because that is where it places it by default but once there, all I can do is look at it in my /tmp file. I can't open it - I can't use it - I can't do anything with it,
I am a newbie, hence posting in this forum but I'll tell ya, this Linux machine crap is really starting to make me not even want to have anything to do with anything named Linux. Forgive the frustrations but it's just that everything is so damned different and roundabout with Linux and it is becoming not fun at all!!! Thanks for any help to a frustrated Linux user.

Can you open a terminal there in /tmp (right click open terminal)?

Then you need to decompress the file with

sudo tar zxvf Open(press tab twice it complete the name)

cd Open(press tab tab)

./Run(pres tab tab)

Ofc you can do this graphically but I don't know your DE.

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Is the file this -- OpenTaxSolver2015_13.05_linux64.tgz, downloaded from SourceForge?


What you are doing is installing a tarball. I, personally, would extract it to /opt.

More information as to the distro being used and basic info on your PC would be very helpful for us to have, here at the forum, @SamGearhart172450.

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Yes it is difficult but it is worth when you come to the point of understanding the benefits.

Please provide more information as to what operating system you are using including the full file name that you downloaded.

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Have you read the documentation and viewed the videos?
http://opentaxsolver.sourceforge.net/index.html#docs

Yes, ots might be harder to use then a program installed from the software center but that would be true regardless of operating system.

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It is a Raspberry Pi 400 with the 2.8GB OS option loaded.

SamGearhart172450,

Welcome to LQ forums.

You do not necessarily need to use the command line since Raspi should have an Archive Manager called Archiver or Xarchiver or similar:
https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articl...a-raspberry-pi

Download OpenTaxSolver2020_18.01_linux64 from:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/opentaxsolver/

and select Open with Archiver (see Image-1).

You probably need to click on Extract in two different locations (see magpi link above for precise details) to acquire a folder (see Image-2) called OpenTaxSolver2020_18.01_linux64.

Open this folder to reveal Run_taxsolve_GUI (see Image-3). Click on this to start the tax program.

Attached Thumbnails

     

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One possible problem, even after getting the tarball extracted is that the Pi is aarmhf 64 and the tarball is likely x86_64 which would be incompatible.

Update.
I just tried that file on my Pi 4B which is the same as the Pi 400 and it will not run. It needs to be on an x86_64 hardware to run.
The file command tells me this

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The source files are included and it is possible to recompile the software. However, I would imagine this will probably lead to more frustrations.

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That file is not designed to work on the Pi. It will work on a standard PC with x86_64 hardware, but the Pi is aarmhf architecture so the code is different.

See my other post. I tested it.

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computersavvy, Look at the src/Build_taxsolve_packages script and see if it will compile on the Pi.

Including:

• Missing required packages -- not a huge problem but extra work for someone who may not have anticipated compiling software.
• Potential x86_64 <--> ARM incompatibilities resulting in cryptic compiler warnings/errors.
• Possibly no "make test" -- Something I would have thought would be included but a target that I didn't see included in OTS's Makefile.

But if an RPi was my only compute option, I'd go for it---though I think I'd always have a nagging fear of a letter arriving from the IRS.


OP: It's too bad that the SourceForge page made no mention of the CPU architecture that the "Linux64" package covered. While April 15th is right around the corner, perhaps a message to the developer could get an ARM-compatible package released in time for this year's tax preparation.

I was able to get this program to function at least minimally on the Pi.

In order to do so I had several steps.
1. unpack the downloaded tgz file (I downloaded it into my home Downloads directory instead of /tmp)

$ tar zxvf OpenTaxSolver2020_18.01_linux64.tgz
which created the directory OpenTaxSolver2020_18.01_linux64
$ cd OpenTaxSolver2020_18.01_linux64
to change into that directory
$ rm bin/*
$ rm Run_taxsolve_GUI
to remove all the existing binaries which are in x86_64 architecture and will not run on the Pi
$ cd src
$ make all
This will recreate most of the binaries in the arm architecture to run on the Pi. There will be many warnings but they are not critical.

Now there is one more part to compile.
there is another subdirectory Gui_gtk that contains files to compile.
$ cd Gui_gtk
The first time I ran "make all" in this directory I found the headers needed for gtk2.0 were not installed. To fix that I had to install them.
$ sudo apt install gtk2.0-dev
$ make all
Again there were warnings that could be ignored.
$ cd ../..
I was back in ~/Downloads/OpenTaxSolver2020_18.01_linux64

Now I was able to run the executable located there and the program properly started.
$ ./Run_taxsolve_GUI
and the software opened up with the gui. I did not try to run it all the way through, but at least it could be started.

I hope this helps the OP.

Just one more small note that may also be a factor.
The default OS on the RPI is a Debian Buster version renamed to Raspberry OS. I have installed the Ubuntu 20.10 release for the Pi which is newer so there may be some differences in packages but overall it is still the same.

See my other post about actually building it on the Pi.
I did manually what that script would do automatically, but it does not remove the existing files to allow rebuilding new so it won't do everything needed.

I tested again after completing the manual rebuild by removing the binaries and restarting with that script. After removing all the old binaries and having already installed the gtk2.0-dev package on the Pi, then running that script worked.

So to do the build with the script when already located within the src directory involved

$ rm -r ../bin
$ rm ../Run_taxsolve_GUI
$ ./Build_taxsolve_packages.sh

The contents of this downloaded tarball was new as almost all the source files were dated in Jan and Feb of this year

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